Research: Character Sheets

What are character sheets?

In games design, character sheets show the character's movements and interactions. It's suppose to give an impression of the character's personality.

Below: 

Temporary model sheet for Disney's version of Pinocchio and Model Sheet for Paperman's Meg

I got into art because of Disney model sheets. I think it's a privilege and a gift to be able to bring characters to life. While making character/model sheets, you can put yourself in the character's point of view and see the narrative in a different way.

My insect character sheet:

This character sheet took longer than i expected because not understanding how my insect's anatomy works frustrated me. It took a couple of attempts (with the image above showing an initial sketch) to come up with my character sheet. It was interesting to think of my insect moves because they don't necessarily have human characteristics. Below is my finalised character sheet and I gave my insect the name 'Cleatle' which is a portmanteau of the words clear and beetle. 

Disney, (2014). Blog Pinocchio model sheet. [image] Available at: http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/disney/images/a/a5/Blog_Pinocchio_model_sheet.JPG/revision/latest?cb=20140619021141 [Accessed 30 Sep. 2015].

Disney, (2014). Model sheet for Paperman's Meg. [image] Available at: http://41.media.tumblr.com/3d81a11afdeb3d05dbe2c6611df345ba/tumblr_n0g4xm9T1M1t0xyebo2_500.jpg [Accessed 30 Sep. 2015].

Research: Light and Composition

Light:

One of my weakness is lighting. I think I don't take enough time to look around an observe how light works. Lighting is probably the most essential part of an image. It can create ambience, form and emphasises composition.

The Exorcist (1973) is an excellent example of how lighting can create mood in a scene. Here we can see an example of sub-surface scattering in her dress. The film has undertones of sexuality and it shows a contrast between her youth/innocence and the foul language and actions that she commits later on in the film while she is possessed. The use of lighting in this specific scene suggests vulnerability as we can see her small form with the light passing through her nightgown. 

The fog is also effective because it absorbs some of the light creating a hazy effect that makes the ominous figure a silhouette. It probably would look like a normal statue inn broad daylight but smoky silhouette makes it an 'unknown', which is one of the most powerful narrative devices in the horror genre.

Up (2009) has the saddest 2 minute montage of any film that I have seen so far. This still embodies a lifetime of emotions and memories for the characters. I think it's impossible for anyone who has seen the film to not feel anything when they see this scene. The bounced lighting coming from the window creates a diffused, soft lighting in the room. This then creates a sullen and calm mood. The light coming from the circular stained glass window creates a soft spotlight on Carl. 

The colour violet usually signifies mystical and ceremonial events. In this scene, the colour accentuates the mood of the earlier scenes which are happy and bubbly while the shadows juxtapose the cheerfulness of the balloons.

Composition:

This was a fun exercise to do because I never really realised how much effort cinematographers put into creating compositions for films. What's even fascinating is the fact that films are moving images. Therefore each still has to be designed so that they are visually pleasing while at the same time, flow into the next scene. We take great designs for granted but when a scene has bad composition, we can easily tell that something is 'off' because our eyes can't naturally process the images.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) is a visually striking film with the colours blue and orange reoccurring throughout it. This scene was also used from some of the promotional graphics for the film. Its was very satisfying to see how the divine proportions apply to this still. It's amazing how their shoes and the cracks on the ice touch parts of the grid. There is also an elegance to the way that their heads point towards the end of the grid.

Hannibal (2013-2015) is the most beautiful tv series I have watched so far. Some scenes look like they can straight out of a Caravaggio painting. The lighting, colours and composition are sublime. It's such an artistic film and I still have no idea why they cancelled it. This scene is particularly interesting because there are many elements that show the depth of the characters. First of all is Hannibal's positioning. He is straight in the middle of the scene with his knees and head meeting the grid. This implies that although Will Graham is the main focus of most of the episodes, the show is still about him. He is also placed higher than Graham, reflecting how he sees himself, a god in comparison to people who are less intelligent and sophisticated than he is. Graham on the other hand is placed lower and nicely hits the focal points of the grid at the same time.

Weekly Summary: 1

BA1a Concept Art Brief: 

You will develop a series of images and designs for 3 different specifications to introduce you to new processes, tools and applications. Your focus is to iterate and improve your designs through silhouettes, thumbnails, studies and digital painting. You will be supported through workshops, lectures and tutorials throughout. 

Life Drawing:

The life drawing session was a great way for me to start working on my anatomy skills. I have participated in life drawing sessions in the past and have always been interested in it because I am drawn to character design. I think solid fundamental anatomy skills are essential to concept art. 

Silhouettes:

After being briefed I started creating my silhouettes (click link to see research post). As I explained on my post, I felt that creating thumbnails without some sort of plan would have resulted in me progressing very slowly with this task. By choosing to create an original non-fiction insect, I was able to create better and quicker thumbnails using alchemy. 

Additionally, I created 8 second thumbnails on Photoshop at the beginning but chose not to develop them as I feel that Alchemy is more suitable to use for this project. It was a great way to get the pre-conceived ideas out of my head so that I could make better designs. 

While making the silhouettes, I began asking myself if my designs are actually 'original'. There’s always been a grey area when it comes to ‘original’ designs. At first I was worried that my silhouettes are of insects that already exist. However I realised that it doesn’t really matter because as long as I’m creating content, I’m learning and developing as an artist. If my final design does end up being extremely similar to an existing insect, then I can just learn from it, possibly develop it and move on.


I think the only problem I encountered this week was time keeping. To solve this problem, I have created a loose plan that I will try to stick to next week in order to finish the project in time.

Research: Alchemy

After sketching some rough thumbnails on Photoshop, I decided to try Alchemy. As we were told, I found Alchemy hard to use. However after trying all the tools and practicing for a few minutes, I was able to draw silhouettes purposely. I thought I had a good variety of shapes and form although it did lead to some questions that I referenced in my previous blog post. It seemed like I could make an infinite amount of these silhouettes and the for the time were were given for this project. I needed a guideline to help me speed up my process while not compromising the quality of my work.

I've never drawn creatures in the past and silhouettes like the ones above made me feel confident because I thought I was stepping out of my comfort zone. Only after some reflection did I realise that i could take it further by choosing to make an original and non-fictional insect.






These are the silhouettes that I made after researching what insects are:

It clearly shows that practice is important because my second batch of silhouettes have more definition and better form that my first ones. I enjoyed layering the shapes by altering the transparency and using gradients to make some if the wings appear lighter. By using Alchemy, I was able to create quick thumbnails that I thought are perfect for the brief. I don't think I would have achieved the same effect on Photoshop and if I tried it would have taken me hours rather than minutes. Not having the option to undo was also helpful because it taught me to embrace accidental shapes and have it as a part of my work. It made me worry less about my preconceived notions because I was forced to adapt to unexpected strokes. 

Research: What are insects?

While creating my initial group of insects, I came to a realisation that I first need to decide what type of insect I want to make. I narrowed my options to three basic types:

• Fictional: Any human made classification of insects do not matter as long as it resembles an insect (means greater boundaries in terms of narrative and how crazy it could look) 
• Non-fictional: Following the description of what insects are, 3 pairs of legs, etc. (doing more research but it would make the design more believable) 
• Hybrid- combining two or more types of existing insects to create a new type of insect (less work but also less challenge and chance to develop skills) 

After deciding to design a non-fictional insect, I researched the definition of insects to help build a specification for my design.Through online resources, I found that insects have the following characteristics:

• invertebrate 
• in the arthropod phylum (they have a segmented body, exoskeleton and joined appendages) 
• 3 parts to their body (head thorax, abdomen) 
• 3 pairs of jointed legs 
• compound eyes (thousands of units which allows for wider angles, more movement and light) 
• one pair of antennae 
• most have wings 

What interested me the most is the difference between humans and insects. Normally I would never think about the anatomy of other creatures. I think it's fascinating that insects are designed to have tough exoskeletons to protect their insides. Furthermore, I am interested in insects with specific evolutionary adaptations like the lichen-coloured katydid that can blend in with it's surroundings incredibly well. My aim is to design an insect that has a fascinating quality that gives it either a defensive or offensive advantage.